iWay Service Manager Suite of HTTP Tools

The HTTP client suite allows iSM to connect to and interact with an HTTP, HTTPS, or nHTTP server. The client is capable of detecting the existence of a file on the remote server and reacting to this existence (through an iSM HTTP, HTTPS, or nHTTP listener).

The reaction of the client based on the existence of a file could be as simple as retrieving the file. It can also involve a complex iSM process flow that includes a series of steps that can manipulate that file or a group of files on the remote system or other systems that iSM is capable of accessing.

The HTTP client suite of tools can be used to handle a variety of application requirements, such as:

• The HTTP/nHTTP listener can be configured to monitor a directory on the server.
  • When a specific file name (and/or extension) is written to that directory, that file will be retrieved and saved to a directory on the client.
  • Alternately, the file that is retrieved can be presented to an iSM process flow and used as the input for additional processing by iSM (for example, updating a database table and initiating an SAP transaction).
• When used in conjunction with other iSM listeners, the HTTP/nHTTP clients can be used within an iSM process flow to transfer data from the client system to the server.
  • A messaging listener such as MSMQ or JMS can be used to take a message from a queue. The message itself or specific message contents can be transferred to the server.
  • An SAP IDoc that is obtained using the iWay Application Adapter for mySAP ERP (SAP JCo 3.x) could be sent to the server.
  • Sending an EDI file to a VAN.

The HTTP server suite of tools provides two listeners:

• HTTP/HTTPS Server Listener
• nHTTP Server Listener

Both listeners have the same characteristics. The listeners can be configured to interact with the client in the same way that any HTTP/nHTTP server would. For example, handling the request of the client (send, receive, rename, delete, and so on) as the server. The advantage of the HTTP server suite of tools is the ability to configure the listeners to use the file(s) that are received as messages that can be used to initiate a complex iSM process flow. Corresponding results are then returned from those process flows.

Security

The HTTP server suite of tools can be configured to handle login security using standard server authentication realms (LDAP, RDBMS, text based property file, Kerberos, and so on) as well as a complete directory authorization capability and user role tracking.

The HTTP server suite of tools can be used to handle a variety of application requirements, such as:

• Receiving transaction messages (including EDI) from partners who need to use a standard protocol, and then passing these messages to a process flow. This a good solution for participating in standard EDI networks by EDI splitters and transformers.
• Receiving files and using a process flow to redistribute the incoming files to one or more internal recipients.
• Act as a relay for large files where not having the actual file materialized on a local disk is required. This can include the receipt of a file outside of a firewall and then relaying the file through the firewall.

All listeners offer the standard server startup failure flows to handle processing issues when the listener begins and when specific error conditions occur during the operation of the listener.